1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a manufacturing apparatus and a manufacturing method for manufacturing an intermediate product via process modules for performing a plurality of processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, substrates for liquid crystal display devices are manufactured, for example, by using processes for manufacturing semiconductor wafers. The conventional processes for manufacturing semiconductor wafers mainly include wafer manufacturing processes, wafer processing processes, assembly processes, and inspection processes. In the wafer processing processes, which are also called preprocess, a plurality of processes are repeatedly performed on the semiconductor wafers.
In conventional preprocess, a plurality of semiconductor wafers are stored in cassettes, and the wafers are carried in a cassette unit. Further, in the conventional preprocess, a manufacture scheme called a flow-shop is employed in some parts thereof (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-145022), instead of a manufacture scheme called a job-shop in which a plurality of processing apparatuses for performing the same kinds of processes on the semiconductor wafers for the manufacture are arranged in a group.
The job-shop has an advantage in that it is easy to maintain and manage the processing apparatuses, but also has a disadvantage in that it takes a long period of time to carry the semiconductor wafers between the processing apparatuses. On the contrary, in a flow-shop, since a plurality of processing apparatuses are arranged in the carrying direction of the semiconductor wafers in the order of processes to be performed on the semiconductor wafers, it is possible to reduce the carrying time.
Nowadays, as a consequence of the transition from a time when a few different kinds of products were produced in great quantities to a time when a variety of products are produced in small quantities, a manufacture scheme called a flow-shop, described above, can be applied to a portion of the preprocess, but cannot be applied to all of the processes. This is because the processing apparatuses with different processing times are mixed in each process module. That is, when all of the processes are performed using the flow-shop scheme, there are problems in that the processing speed for all of the processes is lowered in accordance with a processing apparatus with a low processing speed. On the contrary, for example, while only one processing apparatus with a high processing speed may be required for the job-shop, a plurality of the processing apparatuses may be required for the flow-shop, necessitating an increased investment cost.
Therefore, the present invention is designed to solve the above problems and to provide a manufacturing apparatus and a manufacturing method for efficiently processing intermediate products.